In memoriam: Dr. Carlton Haywood, Jr. (1976–2021)
Authors: Lydia H. Pecker, Mary Catherine Beach, Shawn M. Bediako, Sophie Lanzkron
Journal: American Journal of Hematology (2022)

Dr. Haywood was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1976. A serious and ambitious student, he earned undergraduate admission to the University of Virginia (UVA), where he found his calling as a bioethicist. Dr. Haywood graduated from UVA in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies/Bioethics and in 2003 with a master's degree in Bioethics. Keen to pursue doctoral studies in Bioethics, Dr. Haywood came to Johns Hopkins University and, in 2008, graduated with a PhD in Health Policy and Bioethics. Upon graduation, he joined the Johns Hopkins University faculty with a primary appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology, becoming the Division's first bioethicist and, it's first and only Black faculty member. Dr. Haywood was also an Associate Faculty at the Berman Center of Bioethics and was promoted to Core Faculty status in 2010. He also held an Associate Faculty position at The Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research at Johns Hopkins' School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Haywood was a unique and creative scholar who had both the talent and tenacity to lead impactful, internationally recognized research on the medical condition with which he lived. He studied the patient-clinician relationship, focusing on how clinician attitudes influence patient care and how patient-clinician communication influences health outcomes. He also assessed interrelationships among patient experiences of care, perceptions of patient trust and respect, and the consequences of patient trust on health and behavioral outcomes. Among his chief findings in this domain, Dr. Haywood identified that adults with SCD who had lower levels of trust in medical professionals were more likely than those with greater levels of trust to leave a hospital stay against medical advice. He also developed and validated a tool to assess provider attitudes towards people with SCD. He successfully demonstrated that using a video that depicted the lives of patients outside of the clinical setting can effectively reduce the negative attitudes that some clinicians may have about adults with SCD (tinyurl.com/sicklecellrespect). His ground-breaking scholarship highlighted issues of injustice, challenged commonly held assumptions about people living with SCD (such as lack of interest in clinical trial participation), and paved the way for improving the overall quality of care. Dr. Haywood worked generously as a mentor to numerous students, trainees, and junior faculty - both at Johns Hopkins and at other institutions across the country. His service to the SCD community was also quite extensive. He served on several local, regional, and national advisory committees convened to solicit expert guidance on SCD-focused initiatives. He served on study sections for the Health Resources and Services Administration and the NIH Center for Scientific Review and was a peer reviewer for several academic journals. Dr. Haywood regularly reviewed abstracts for the National Annual Sickle Cell Disease Research & Scientific Meeting and served as an Ethicist on the Data Safety and Monitoring Board for the historic Phase III randomized controlled clinical trial of hydroxyurea in children, BABY-HUG. Vence L. Bonham, Jr., Deputy Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and Investigator in the NIH Intramural Research Program, worked with Dr. Haywood in several capacities over the years. “Dr. Haywood conducted seminal research in the fields of sickle cell disease and bioethics that will impact the fields for years into the future,” Mr. Bonham said. “Dr. Haywood was a kind, collaborative, dedicated scholar who brought intersectional identities to his research and his life. In bringing his own lived experience to his scholarship, he highlighted the importance of recognizing the humanity and the rich and complex lives of people living with sickle cell disease. His work has left a permanent mark on both fields, and the thoughtful ways in which he interacted with colleagues and students are an inspiration for how we ought to engage and collaborate with one another.” Dr. Haywood was an active speaker at the national level. He frequently gave guest lectures in academic courses and grand rounds at universities and medical schools across the country and was also a highly sought-after speaker for workshops, seminars, and conferences that focused on SCD research and advocacy. Over his impactful, if too short, career, Dr. Haywood earned several research grants and accolades for his scholarship. His research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and he was a key contributor and co-author on many of the most important studies to emerge from the Johns Hopkins Sickle Cell Disease research enterprise in the past decade focusing on patient experiences of respect and trust, patient perspectives of acute care, and the multidimensional experience of stigma in SCD care. Among the many awards and honors that Dr. Haywood achieved was his 2009 induction into the Alpha Chapter of the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society and his recognition by Ebony magazine as one of the 100 most influential African Americans in the country who were so honored for “changing the course of history and making an enduring and lasting impact in their communities and the world”. Dr. Haywood was an avid fan of comic books who loved Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and spending time with his friends and family. He was unwavering in extending patience, empathy, and kindness to others. He is survived by his mother, Harriett Haywood and his father, Carlton Haywood Sr., his siblings, Tammy, Atu, and Akiah, and a host of nieces (Amara, Jayla, Ahmaya, Nala, and Emery) and nephews (Braylen and Khalil). Dr. Haywood's early departure reminds us of the urgent and multifaceted work needed to address the profound and persistent morbidities and early mortality that gravely limits the lives of people living with SCD. May his work and life be our North Star. In his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Haywood concluded that the failure to provide patient-centered care for people with SCD, “has a significant impact on outcomes for this population and ought to be the subject of great moral scrutiny in a society committed to social justice.” Dr. Haywood envisioned a world that honors the human dignity of each person living with SCD, that provides those persons with appropriate and timely treatment, that upholds the promise of high-quality care, and that invests equitably in SCD research. He is missed and his vision illuminates the path ahead. The authors have no relavent conflicts of interest to declare. Data sharing was not applicable for this article.